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4.3.5Tune Meaning: The Tune of a Song as Your Brain Hears It
Recall that simple ratios of frequencies gave rise to a scale in the first place. However, some frequency ratios within the scale are simpler than others. When your brain hears two frequency ratios, one simple, the other not-as-simple, it perceives an urging of the not-as-simple frequency ratio to become simpler. That’s the onset of a tune. That's when the tune starts to mean something.
As the tune moves from note to note, your brain perceives meaning in the tune only if most of the ratios of frequencies do not resolve to simpler ones, while holding the promise of ultimately resolving.
To get a tune started, you need a minimum of two frequency ratios so that your brain can tell which one is simpler than the other. This can happen only if you hear at least three successive notes:
- A single frequency ratio is a ratio of two different notes (one interval).
- Therefore two frequency ratios require at least three notes (two consecutive intervals).